If you have ever went to a football game, whether it be college or the NFL, you just do not go for the game. You go for the whole entertainment package. You go for the tailgating experience hours before. You go to be with friends and/or family. You go for the entertainment that the stadium brings, whether it be the halftime show, the cheerleaders, the horns and whistles of the home team getting the fans ramped up in every way, shape and form. This is the game day experience. When I go to the NYC Hot Expo, I go for the whole enchilada. This Saturday and Sunday, April 22-23, 2017, I come for the party.

Just in case you did not notice the Ticklemaster part of the above ticket, it is fake. There is no ticket for $499.99, so please do not panic! The time to panic is when you enter one of the many scheduled events at the NYC Hot Sauce Expo. Such as the Puckerbutt Guinness Book of World Records Smokin’ Ed’s Carolina Reaper pepper eating record for 1 minute. A slight change from last year’s 3 pepper eating and done display. That will end the show on Sunday.

Then there is our 3rd Annual Fiery Pizza Eating Contest co-sponsored with our friends at Volcanic Peppers and the infamous Grimaldi’s Pizzeria. Each contestant will get a Volcanically Enhanced Grimaldi’s pizza that they have to eat in a pre-determined amount of time. The first one finished or eats the most will be declared the winner and get this beautiful trophy…

Volcanic Peppers is located in Bellevue, NE. We are independent chile growers processing in a locally approved and FDA registered commercial kitchen. We provide fresh chile peppers including a variety of habanero, cayenne, sweet and ultra hot peppers including the worlds hottest Trinidad scorpion, 7-pot and the ghost or bhut jolokia peppers. We also create several blends of chile powder including Volcano Dust ™ which is a combination of several dried and or smoked peppers.

For the 2nd year in a row at the NYC Hot Sauce Expo, ILoveItSpicy & Volcanic Peppers joined in with the infamous Grimaldi’s Pizzeria for an incredible, edible spicy pizza eating contest. With a little help from our friends at Puckerbutt Pepper Company we were able to obtain a camera from their documentary reporter, Jeff Howlett. Thank you very much Ed Currie and Jeff for your kind contribution. On top of that, we got some help from Ken Alexander of www.FieryWorld.com, who took the time to get behind the camera and film the contest. The crowd was great and got really into it. If you wish to purchase the Italian Spice we used in making these ultra hot pizzas, then head on over to the Volcanic Peppers website.

On my way up to the NYC Hot Sauce Expo my first stop was to visit Grimaldi’s Pizzeria in Brooklyn. My intent was to do an interview with the owner or manager and give a little insight on the Volcanic Peppers’ Fiery Pizza Challenge we were going to do at the Expo. Unfortunately the owner was too busy, the manager got sick, and so the next person up the pizza hierarchy was Ralph who admitted to me was a lover of spicy food. So I was happy with that exchange. What I did not prepare myself for was that they wanted to make me one of the fiery pizzas for our challenge. They broke down the spice in 11 equal amounts, 10 for the contestants and 1 trial and error pizza for yours truly. I filmed the entire process so you can see how they put together one of the great pizzas known to man.

Quite a long weekend for me and my travels to and fro the sho. I got a little sunburned, but it was well worth the price of admission. THE NYC Hot Sauce Expo was larger than life and it was my extreme honor to sponsor the very first ever spicy pizza eating contest with Tim Bader of Volcanic Peppers and the legendary Grimaldi’s Pizzeria of Brooklyn. A big thanks to Steve Seabury of High River Sauces to allow us to bring this special event to the good people of NY. Lastly a HUGE thank you goes out to Steven “The Murph” Murphy of Murph’s Famous Bloody Mary Mix who secured me Grimaldi’s with his calling on favors and twisting of arms. You are the man Murph, I owe you one now.

High River Sauces hosts the 1st Annual NYC Hot Sauce Expo and folks for a first time show, Steve Seabury who is the man behind the event is doing a bang-up job promoting the thing. This week they have been doing media relations with SiriusXM Satellite Radio, NY Time, NY Daily News, NY Post and get a load of this, Good Morning America! That is just for starters. I do not remember any hot sauce related event doing this much media to rival what this show is doing presently. We expect the Food Network, the Cooking Channel, Food & Wine Magazine, the Village Voice, and a host of other media outlets to be attending the show. I do not think I felt this much buzz leading up to a show before. I am honestly very excited and there are a couple of personal reasons why.

Popcorn Balls from Hell to be exact. This was a very very spicy popcorn ball eating competition. To see it is to believe it. It just goes to show you that you can make anything into a spicy eating competition. Thanks to Tim Bader of Volcanic Peppers for allowing us to co-sponsor this crazy eating contest.